


Lights Out

by assassinslover



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-14
Updated: 2013-08-14
Packaged: 2017-12-23 10:39:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/925397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/assassinslover/pseuds/assassinslover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something clicks, the fizzling of electricity glitching and cutting off.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lights Out

**Author's Note:**

> Jordan wanted fluff and this fandom needs some more fluff so here you all go. You're welcome for the diabetes.

Delphine is afraid of the dark.

 

Cosima discovers as much when they're at Felix's loft, having offered to watch Kira for the night. Sarah's daughter is already asleep, curled up in Felix's bed with a stuffed animal and blankets bunched around her, not having so much as moved in the past hour, despite the rather violent wind swirling around. _Kids_ , Cosima thinks, glancing over her shoulder from her position on the couch to check on her. Satisfied that she's still soundly sleeping, she turns around and settles back against Delphine with a content sigh, eyes drifting shut. Delphine's hand settles against her shoulder, the other holding open the book she's been reading.

Something clicks, the fizzling of electricity glitching and cutting off. Cosima registers how Delphine's body stiffens, the book falling from her fingers in favour of clapping over her mouth to muffle the yelp that bursts from her throat in an effort to keep from waking Kira. Cosima shoots up straight, concerned, blinking into the sudden darkness. After a few seconds, her eyes adjust, and she begins to make out shapes in the black, one of which is the hunched up form of her girlfriend.

Immediately, she reaches out her hands, wrapping them around Delphine's shoulders and pulling her close, stroking her soft curls while shaking hands claw at her shirt. Cosima hushes her, her own shock at the sudden change wearing away as quickly as it had started. Delphine's nose presses into the side of her neck, arms snaking around to cling to Cosima's back.

“Hey, hey,” Cosima coos, rubbing her skull. “It's okay. It's just the wind. It'll be back on soon, I'm sure.” Delphine's breath is hot against her skin, pants of air that make Cosima's brow furrow. “Look, hey, let me go find a flashlight, okay?” Delphine's grip tightens, a whimper sounding against Cosima's skin. “You're okay, I'll be right back.” Gently, she pries herself away, squeezing Delphine's fingers with her own and leaning forward to grope for her phone on the coffee table. She knocks against it, pressing whatever button she can find to light up the screen. It's poor, but enough. Continuously repeating the action, she holds it up to Delphine's face and smiles, touching her cheek and kissing her forehead. “You're okay,” she repeats, waiting for an answering nod before moving.

She doesn't actually know if Felix has a flashlight anywhere in his house, but she starts in the kitchen first, fumbling her way forward with a hand stretched in front of her even though she knows there's nothing to bump into. She does trip over the step up into the kitchen, despite her shuffling feet, recovering before she manages to faceplant the floor. There's nothing except what barely passes for food and copious amounts of alcohol. The bathroom is her next stop, but she misjudges the position of the door and bangs her shoulder into the frame instead.

“Cosima?” Delphine's voice drifts from the sofa, sounding very small.

“I'm fine,” Cosima replies, fixing her glasses. “Depth perception isn't my strong point when it's dark.” Her phone provides a pitiful amount of light to search by, and there's no flashlight anywhere in that room either, but she does find a wealth of candles under the sink. She examines them in the dim, blue glow of her cell, then shrugs and wrangles them into her arms, only to drop one the second she stands up. “Shit,” she mutters, trying to pick it back up without dropping her burden with no success. She leaves it, returning to Delphine quickly before the light on her phone fades and spreading them across the table. At least she knows there's matches in the kitchen, even if there's nothing else useful.

Delphine calms down when Cosima's lit the candles, spreading them out to maximize the area of light they provide, but she can still see tension in the line of her body. She tosses her phone back onto the table and sinks into the sofa again. Delphine shifts to accommodate when Cosima swings her legs up to stretch out along it, and when Cosima's hands coax her to lay down, head pillowing against Cosima's chest. She relaxes against Cosima's body, reaching for a hand to hold.

For a while, neither of them speak. Cosima rubs Delphine's bare shoulder until her trembling subsides.

 

“I used to be completely obsessed with dinosaurs,” Cosima says after a while. She's bunched Delphine's shirt around her shoulders, lightly dragging the tips of her fingers along her lover's spine. It had comforted Delphine enough for her to forget that they could only see by candlelight. Thankfully, Kira hadn't made a peep.

“Mmm?” Delphine mumbles against her skin, face turned and buried in Cosima's clevage.

“Yeah, like, totally obsessed,” Cosima continues, skating her fingers up Delphine's back to tangle into the hair at the base of her skull, watching shadows from the candles flicker across the ceiling. “You should have seen my room, from the time I was five all the way until I was getting ready to move out for college. I always wanted to go see the bones in the museum and do those little fake fossil kits where you had to dig up dirt and brush it off and everything, like, baby's first archaeology dig or something. I was like, Super Geek, or something.”

“You are still a super geek,” Delphine counters. She kisses the swell of Cosima's breast and cuddles closer, curling her legs up and edging her fingers under Cosima's side and back.

“Yeah, but this was extreme super geekery,” Cosima retorts. “I had little dinosaur toys everywhere, it was actually really embarrassing now that I think about it. It's no wonder I never let anyone in my room.”

“I would have loved to see your room,” Delphine replies.

“Well, I packed everything up, but if you want we could totally go down and dig them out of storage. I've been meaning to sort through all my old shit anyway since it's just taking up space in the basement.”

“I'd like that.”

“What about you?” Cosima inquires. Delphine hums in thought, then shrugs her shoulders.

“Nothing like dinosaurs.” She pauses. “I liked puppies a lot.” Cosima chuckles and threads Delphine's curls through her fingers.

“No surprise there; you practically are one.” She feels Delphine's nose scrunch against her skin and chuckles. A smile follows. It lingers on her lips in the short silence that follows before another question pops into her mind. “Why are you afraid of the dark?” Delphine rubs her side with her thumb, nuzzling her chest.

“A nightmare,” she finally says, “when I was a little girl. I do not remember the details of it now, it was so long ago, but I needed a light to sleep until I was a teenager. It's worse when it's sudden.” Cosima sighs softly and pulls her closer, bundling Delphine in her arms.

“You're safe with me,” she tells her. “I won't let any monsters get you. Besides, the candles are pretty romantic, if I say so myself.” Delphine laughs again, softly, and pulls her weight off Cosima's body to look down at her. Cosima examines the flicker of light across her skin, and reflections bouncing off her eyes, dark and warm. She grins, showing teeth. Delphine responds the same, and leans down for a gentle kiss, a meeting and pressing and pulling of lips that lasts for long moments while the candles slowly burn down.

The crackle of the power returning and sudden flood of lights rather ruins the mood. Delphine turns her head away and lets out a sigh of relief, but keeps her body spread across Cosima's.

“See?” Cosima says. “Just like I said.” Delphine kisses the bridge of her nose and lays back against her chest. Her eyelashes flutter across Cosima's collarbone. She closes her eyes, sinking further into the sofa, feeling Delphine's breathing begin to even out into deep, steady, her own matching it until she's lost in a swirl of dreams.


End file.
